I heard him grind his teeth, the muscles in his temples jumping. Almost faster than I could track, Dain wheeled and snatched my hand again, and started hauling me towards the palace with about as much compassion as a tow truck pulling a souped-up Ford pickup out of a ditch, very nearly yanking me off my feet once more.

9. Romance Novels

Chapter 9

Romance Novels

Dain delivered me unto my rooms, then gave me the dreadful news that they were attached to his suite. The adjoining door was an ornately carved thing, all twining vines and leaves with little beasts peeking out through the foliage, and I looked at it as if by my unhappiness I could transmute it to a solid stone wall.

"Don't flatter yourself, mortal girl," Dain growled. "I have no intention of breaking down the door to ravish you."

I pivoted and pinned my glare on him again, liking the door even less now that the word "ravish" had been spoken out loud.

He only smirked. "I'm still the crown prince, and some women like the thrill of being fucked by the Beast of Phazikai. My reputation between the sheets is well-earned." Dain licked his lips while I made an expression of distaste. "Though it's not often between sheets. I keep things more interesting."

"Gross," I informed him, though it was anything but. I needed the distance, though. Skulls, I reminded myself, and shuddered. "That's way more information about your love life than I wanted."

The crown prince's mouth twisted into a sneer, his ears flattening. One tail cut through the air with enough force that I heard the air whistling through his fur. "Who said anything about love?" he asked, the word dripping with disdain. "If you think the women who so eagerly seek out my physical attention love me, you're more of a fool than I thought."

I returned my attention to the door. "So you're saying you're plenty ravished, no interest in turning your attentions on little old me, hm?"

"I may be a monster and a murderer, but I take no pleasure from the pain of others," Dain said, his voice angry and poisonous. "Not pain, not fear, not horror. The women I fuck come to me. Do you think I can't see the way you look at me? That I can't see the fear?"

I heard the footstep and whipped my head back around to look up at him as he moved closer. I didn't want to see the hurt on his face, and I couldn't avoid it. He wanted me to like him. The knowledge wrapped around me like the roots of a strangler fig. Dain had saved my life because he wanted to trust someone to like him, and he'd gambled, hoping that I wasn't divinely appointed to long for nothing but his death.